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Monthly Archives: March 2011

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There’s a downtown L.A. park under construction between Bunker Hill and City Hall, and one of the best places to get an overall glimpse is from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, L.A.’s opera hall.

Here’s a recent, if rainy, view from the fourth floor balcony level overlooking Grand Avenue. The nosebleed tier provides a better view of the construction than the swells get. That’s the County Hall of Administration in the background.

Chandler, you may recall, was nicknamed Buff because of her maiden name, Buffum, and yes, her family owned the Buffum’s department store chain.

The $56 million Grand Avenue Civic Park, set to open in May 2012, will include “lawns, performance spaces, seating areas, walking paths, vegetation, an upgraded fountain and even a dog park,” says the L.A. Downtown News.

On the streets of Mexico City, a few blocks from the Zocalo, I saw this hip-high figure outside a restaurant. I took a photo because it looked awfully familiar.

And sure enough, there’s a chef’s figure on the counter at Nancy’s Cafe in Rancho Cucamonga, not to mention a life-sized version outside the Local Baker in Upland. They’re almost as prolific as garden gnomes.

Not long after being sent a photo of Restaurant Chino by a reader visiting the Dominican Republic, I was strolling in Mexico City and found Restaurante Los Angeles. That’s a nice Dodger blue awning. I didn’t check the menu to see if they serve bacon-wrapped hot dogs.

Proving once again that there’s a local angle to everything, Elizabeth Taylor, who died Wednesday at age 79, once filmed a movie in the Inland Valley.

Specifically, “Sweet Bird of Youth,” a made-for-TV movie from 1989 in which the 57-year-old Taylor costarred with Mark Harmon in an adaptation of a Tennessee Williams play. It was Taylor’s last significant role.

Filming took place over two days, May 11 and 12, 1989, in downtown Upland, which stood in for a 1950s Florida town. Some 140 local extras were part of the production.

Were you one of them? Did any of you witness the filming or watch the movie? What did you see?

In Montclair, the CompUSA building at 9059 Central Ave. at Moreno Street, vacant since 2007, is preparing for a new, non-retail tenant: a very large Asian-themed restaurant. Paradise Buffet will occupy 14,000 square feet and seat 300, according to City Hall.